The Tallis Scholars

Touchstones of Franco-Flemish and English Renaissance sacred music are heard on this concert. Renowned throughout Renaissance Europe, Josquin des Prez’s fame grew so much that eventually he was simply referred to by his first name. Josquin’s Missa Pange lingua, one of his last Mass settings, was built upon a chant melody that evolves into richly sonorous sound. Byrd’s brilliant Latin motets display his tremendous inventiveness and superb gift for setting text.

Part of Salon Encores.

Performers

The Tallis ScholarsPeter Phillips, Conductor

Program

JOSQUIN "Gaude virgo"

JOSQUIN Missa Pange lingua

BYRD "Cunctis diebus"

BYRD "Gaudeamus omnes"

BYRD "Timete Dominum"

BYRD "Iustorum animae"

BYRD "Beati mundo corde"

BYRD "Diliges Dominum"

BYRD "Tribue Domine"

Encore:

GUTIÉRREZ DE PADILLA Deus in adiutorium meum

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.

Bios

The Tallis Scholars

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by
director Peter Phillips. Through its recordings and concert performances, the ensemble has
established itself as the leading exponent of Renaissance sacred music throughout the
world. Mr. Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create the purity and clarity of sound
that best serves the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to
be heard. The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, usually giving
approximately 70 concerts around the globe each year. During the 2014-2015 season, the
ensemble tours the US, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Europe, and the UK.

The Tallis Scholars' career highlights have included a tour of China in 1999, including
two concerts in Beijing, and the privilege of performing in the Sistine Chapel in April
1994 to mark the final stage of the complete restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes. The
ensemble has commissioned many contemporary composers during its history: In 1998, it
celebrated its 25th anniversary with a special concert in London's National Gallery,
premiering a Sir John Tavener work written for the group and narrated by Sting. An
additional performance of the piece was given with Sir Paul McCartney in New York in
2000.

Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have received many awards throughout the world. In 1987,
the group's recording of Josquin's Missa La sol fa re
mi and Missa Pange
lingua received Gramophone magazine's Record of the Year
honor-the first recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989, the
ensemble won two Diapason d'Or awards for its recordings of a mass and
motets by Lassus and of two masses by Josquin. A recording of Palestrina's Missa
Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was
awarded Gramophone's Early Music Award in 1991. The Scholars received the
1994 Early Music Award for a recording of music by Cipriano de Rore and the same
distinction again in 2005 for a disc of music by John Browne. The group was nominated for
Grammy Awards in 2001, 2009, and 2010, and in November 2012, a recording of
Josquin's Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris
stella received a Diapason d'Or. In 2013, The Tallis Scholars
were welcomed into the Gramophone Hall of Fame by public
vote.

Peter
Phillips

Peter Phillips has dedicated his life's
work to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony. Having won a scholarship to
Oxford in 1972, Mr. Phillips studied Renaissance music with David Wulstan and Denis Arnold,
and gained experience in conducting small vocal ensembles. He founded The Tallis Scholars
in 1973 and has now appeared in almost 2,000 concerts and made more than 60 recordings with
the ensemble, encouraging interest in polyphony all over the world.

Apart from his appearances with The Tallis Scholars, Mr. Phillips continues to work with
other specialist ensembles. He has appeared with the BBC Singers, Collegium Vocale Gent,
and Netherlands Chamber Choir. He is currently working with Belgium's Namur Chamber Choir,
Moscow's Intrada vocal ensemble, Musica Reservata of Barcelona, and Oviedo's El León de
Oro. Mr. Phillips gives numerous master classes and choral workshops around the world each
year and is also artistic director of the Tallis Scholars Summer Schools, annual choral
courses based in Uppingham (UK), Seattle, and Sydney that are dedicated to exploring the
heritage of Renaissance choral music and developing an appropriate performance style. In
2014, he launched the London International A Cappella Choir Competition at St John's Smith
Square, attracting choirs from all over the world.

In addition to conducting, Mr. Phillips is well known as a writer. For 32 years, he has
contributed a regular music column (as well as one, more briefly, on cricket)
to The Spectator. In 1995, he became owner and publisher of The
Musical Times, the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. His first
book, English Sacred Music 1549-1649, was published by Gimell Records in
1991, while his second, What We Really Do: The Tallis Scholars, an unblinking
account of what touring is like alongside insights about the make-up and performance of
polyphony, was published in 2003 and revised in 2013.

Mr. Phillips has recently been appointed a Reed Rubin Director of Music and a Bodley
Fellow at Merton College, University of Oxford. In 2005, he was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre
des Arts et des Lettres by the French minister of culture.

Audio

"Agnus Dei" from Josquin Des Prez's Missa Pange Lingua

The Tallis Scholars | Peter Phillips, Conductor

Gimell Records

At a Glance

The
16th century was a time of change for Europe. The seeds of the Italian Renaissance
were beginning to spread across the continent, carried on the breeze of the
printing press. Ideas, philosophies, and artistic movements were succored by
this new public dialogue, creating an unprecedented outpouring of creative
innovation in literature, visual arts, and music. Yet while culture was drawing
Europe’s nations ever closer, the Reformation was driving them apart, splitting
the continent irrevocably down the fault line between Catholicism and
Protestantism.

Tonight’s concert showcases music from thegolden ages of England and the Netherlands. Works by William Byrd
and Josquin des Prez might be divided by religion, but each represents the
pinnacle of creative achievement within two very different schools of
composition.